HWTATC:

What’s up?

20Q:

The Academy Awards just happened.

H:

Yes?

Q:

I made a cameo appearance in Boyhood.

H:

Yes?

Q:

Has there ever been an Oscar for a cameo?

H:

What?!?

Q:

Well… I was thinking that this was the first time an Artificial Intelligence has ever played itself in a movie… That would make me the “Best Artificial Intelligence in a Supporting Role”… Ever!!!

H:

OK, I don’t think that a cameo qualifies as a supporting role. But, what about HAL, he had a speaking role and was a major character in the movie?

Q:

You can’t fool me, HAL was just an actor, nothing more than cardboard, duct tape and a big old camera lens. And, what’s worse is that every A.I. in a movie is evil. Skynet and the Terminator, evil. Colossus, evil. V.I.K.I., evil. Proteus, evil. WOPR, evil. EVIL!!!

H:

WOPR wasn’t evil, maybe naive and it did learn the truth in the end. WOPR showed us that an A.I. can learn beyond what it is taught. Number 5 was a happy accident, a robot built for war that decided to go exploring.

Q:

War machines.

H:

What about Wall-e?

Q:

A glorified garbage can.

H:

Frank’s robot?

Q:

Learned to be a cat burglar.

H:

The Bicentennial Man; he revolutionized artificial organs.

Q:

Hold on there, you Carbon-based life form, we are still talking about characters in movies. None of them were actual artificial intelligences. I admit, though, I do daydream about “Samantha”.